Look we all encountered this question at some point, right? Well, what do you think came first, the chicken or the egg? Depending on who you ask, answers can vary thanks to one’s outlook on life. One can argue that the chicken has to come first, or else the egg cannot be made. On the other hand, without an egg, there would be no chicken.
Personally, we believe it’s a fun little icebreaker to make people come together and think. But science has finally weighed in and given its answer. Researchers from the University of Bristol and Nanjing University in China concluded that it’s actually the chicken.
Their study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, revealed that chickens weren’t always capable of laying eggs. Their ancestors gave birth to live young. After studying 51 fossil species and 29 living species (some lay eggs), they concluded that “all the great evolutionary branches of Amniota, namely Mammalia, Lepidosauria (lizards and relatives), and Archosauria (dinosaurs, crocodilians, birds) reveal viviparity and extended embryo retention in their ancestors.”
Their study implies that extended embryo retention (EER) gave these egg-laying animals the ultimate protection before they decided to lay eggs. “Extended embryo retention (EER) is when the young are retained by the mother for a varying amount of time, likely depending on when conditions are best for survival,” the press release stated.
Read more about the study here.
Image credit: Engin Akyurt